Headlines: Refugees

The European refugee crisis continues as scores of migrants continue to arrive on Italian shores. In the small island of Lampedusa, the 6,000 migrants now outnumber the local residents by a thousand. Among those migrants are some 350 children who under international convention cannot be deported and should be put into temporary foster homes while asylum paperwork is processed.

From the AP Report:

“Premier Silvio Berlusconi, pressured by anti-immigrant coalition allies, promised while touring the island Wednesday that all of the migrants would be either deported to Tunisia or transferred to mainland detention centers within two to three days. Most of the arrivals are Tunisians who fled unrest in their homeland in the hope of finding family members or jobs in France.”

The British government has announced an emergency aid package for refugees (£16m) fleeing violence in Ivory Coast amid concerns that the fighting could spread and destabilize west Africa. France followed suit and pledged 2.5 million euros (3.5 million dollars) in humanitarian aid to people displaced by the violence in Ivory Coast.

The Guardian also has a fascinating look at life inside the world’s biggest refugee complex, Dadaab, and how Somalis in Kenya’s refugee camps find themselves far from the international spotlight, with no perceived solution to their plight